CALENDAR
Snuff Bottles from the Hippo Collection
Date: May 22, 2010 - October 24, 2010
Website: www.crowcollection.org
Location: Crow Collection of Asian Arts
Address:
2010 Flora Street
Dallas, TX 75201
Map it
A vibrant selection of snuff bottles from the Hippo Collection now complements the museum’s own holdings, currently on view in the Snuff Bottle Court, with new styles of design and workmanship from the seemingly endless repertory of the art form. The name of the collection derives from numerous depictions of hippopotomi that the owner has collected, although no images of the humorous and friendly creature appear among the snuff bottle designs in this exhibition.
Made popular in the 17th century by the Chinese elite, snuff bottles are small containers mainly used to store tobacco introduced to China by Europeans. They are made from a variety of precious materials- jade, hardstones, porcelain, and ivory, among others- and worked in a number of techniques, including carving, incising, and painting. Signaling a connection with the global trade in tobacco, the form makes use of several innovations, such as glassmaking and enameling, that were inspired by Chinese contact with the arts of the West. In due course, snuff bottles soon became early favorites among Western collectors of Chinese art as well